Samsung Gear VR headset now has a price: $199

A Samsung spokesperson has revealed that the company's upcoming Gear VR headset will cost $199 when it is released later this year.

While Samsung wouldn't reveal the price of the virtual reality helmet during its official announcement this week at the IFA trade show in Berlin, a Samsung rep spilled the beans about its cost to VentureBeat at Fashion Week in New York City on Friday night.

As we have reported before, the Gear VR won't work unless the Galaxy Note 4 is attached to the headset so it can serve as its screen. That means the overall cost to get that virtual reality effect on the eyes will actually cost a lot more than $199.

Do you think the price of the Gear VR is fair considering it also requires the Galaxy Note 4 to be used?

Expensive or not expensive? Let's see. The Rift DK2 is $350 and you have to have a gaming pc with it, strapped on your chair, in your room. The Gear VR is $200, the Note 4 is around $800, but you get, of course, the greatest and most feature(and sensor)-packed smartphone to date (with the most amazing large display, I must add), and the first ever properly working VR consumer device which also happens to be a truly mobile VR experience to take where ever you want to go. Hmm.. I'd say cheap. Definitely cheap (especially compared to the unannounced iphone where, I'm guessing, with the similar price, you would only get the exta large storage version).

It's too high... I mean if it's a standalone device, that's a great price. But it doesn't have a screen yet. You'll needs an $800 dollar phone... And a pair of bluetooth earphones if you really want to immerse.

Way too expensive. I received my google cardboard kit today and am using it with a note3. It was £20 delivered and provides a fantastic vr experience. Any one who is interested in this should just get cardboard.

These things are cool but really not much more than a glorified GAF View-master.

Get Google Cardboard and compare it against this thing and Oculas Rift and then tell me how it is worth that price.

The Oculas has Note 3 internals too.

I suspect that cardboard is good enough for the state of the current technology. At this point, they are fun to play with but the new will wear off soon enough until the next version comes out. $20 for Google Cardboard is enough for now.

So technically it will be: Gear VR ($199) + Galaxy Note 4 ($200 to $250, not sure of on-contract price) which makes it become a total of $400 too $450, or almost $800 to $900 if you bought the device off-contract and then bought the Gear VR with that

$200? Nope. I'll wait for the Occulus or the Sony device to come out. I feel this is way to much for what amounts to a head mount with lenses in it. Throw in the fact that it only works with the Note 4 and has almost no support at this point makes it worth about $50.

It's fairly priced IF you own a Note 4. I understand that Samsung wants to encourage adoption of their devices through compatibility requirements, but I'd rather buy a standalone device. I could also be more accepting of a VR headset as an accessory to a gaming console. Just my thoughts, but I'm not really in the market for one anyway.

Some people just don't get it. Samsung doesn't have to cater to the SMALL populace that doesn't own Samsung products or in this case, the note 4.
This doesn't have to sell like hotcakes. They just need to be the first to do it. The note edge doesn't need to sell like hot cakes. They just need to be the first to do it.
Because guess what? All it takes is someone to have this, show it off, n then convince another that it's cool. Then another note 4 is bought, rinse n repeat. A few good well placed commercials, carrier bundles or whatever... Boom.

I absolutely agree! ! I am very very new to Android as I have owned many generations of iPhones. I am so impressed by the innovation of Samsung, etc. Refreshing! I think being the first is huge! I was a daily appadvice dot com reader and all you see is talk about Samsung copying. From what I see lately Samsung is pushing the envelope. I live the valley that the Android has to offer. I drank the Koolaid for years but I'm done. I don't care what size Apple makes their new phone. I was so done that I went android 7 weeks before the Apple iPhone announcement. I just did not care. I'm tired of Apple thinking they know what I need and taking their time. I like movers and shakers. Regardless of what brand you choose the Android lineup is fresh and exciting. I would never go back to the ios platform. Sorry for the ramble. What was the topic? :)

Being first is good for word-of-mouth, but that's not why it's priced so high. It's priced high because they want to attract those that are excited about VR even before they've tried it. Google did the same thing when they priced the Beta version of Glass at $1000 when it's only worth like $200. Then, when reviews come out it's by people that are hardcore fans of the technology and want to see it succeed.

Samsung has priced this about 400% too high in order to bring in (good) reviews from a certain demographic.

Price is not bad. Without the phone in it, it would cost a ton more considering all the smarts and screen are from the Note 4. Where they screwed up is using the Note 4 and only the Note 4. If it accepted the Note 3 (come on, it's plenty fast enough albeit with a lower resolution) they'd have a much bigger base of potential buyers for this. I don't think it will even take the Note edge, you know, their brand new super best phone ever. It should accept more than just one device. First VR headset to do that will be the winner.

I hope they release a stand-alone product sometime with its own display not dependant on another device. But even if they did they'd probably tie it to Samsung phones exclusively so... not for me I guess.

Seems reasonable, next year Note 5 will be UHD, in 2 years GS 7 will be UHD, we don't know if Apple will beat us to UHD. Apple has huge capital reserves, beat us to beyond FHD, 64 bit, of course their price performance is lower. But our reliability has declined lately, we need another project butter, I'm considering a second hand iPad mini 2, it's resolution, 64 bit and reliable. The price will be down if iPad mini 3 is released September 9, I hope for Android's sake, reliability goes up, with version L 64 bit and Apple doesn't beat them to UHD. As to VR, great, I have a UHD TV, UHD upscaling Blue Ray player, 3D screen, 3D Blue Ray player. Never saw any disadvantage to glasses free 3D on my phone, wouldn't have given it up to move to Nexus, unless RAM performance hadn't been so poor. It could be quite popular with pixel level up, situational awareness up, so nausea down, image quality up, 4X as much as my old 3D phone. Project Tango can only improve situational awareness, characters can move into our rooms and we won't bump into furniture, or people. Googameistro, please don't do a Microsoft with 64 bit, windows 8, is an absolute disaster, Jelly Bean 1 and 2, were magic. Kit Kat great idea, reducing hardware demand, but without reliability and speed, what's the point. Recommend not upgrading above 4.2.2, Google play services update, unless there are specific features you absolutely need.

I wonder how much Apple's 5.5" phone will cut into Note 4 sales or if they'll hold steady just because more people are moving up in size these days? $200 isn't a crazy price for this, it looks like a great accessory. I'm just curious how much support such a niche accessory will get. HD 3D movie watching would be great.

I knew even before the Note 4 (for that matter the Note 3) that many Android people will jump ship to Apple for a 4.7" or 5.5" device. But this is the type of tech that will have them coming back to Android. Once this becomes widespread and cheaper Apple will have no answer for it; not anytime soon.

This will have no effect on those people that buy into the Note series for the S-Pen and the features that it brings to the smartphone experience. However, people that buy Galaxy Notes, One Maxes, etc for the bigger screen size may be enticed to buy the new iPhone, especially if screen size is the chief reason for their departure from the iOS ecosystem.

Not a bad price at all. I could easily sale my Note 3 to cover the contract price of $300 for the Note 4 (or less because I've paid $200 for both my Note 2 and 3 when released). Being on Verizon family plan I always have a upgrade every year and the monthly price does not change if you have a contract or not. So all that is really left is the $200.
I wasn't going to upgrade but if I see the Note 4 going for $200 on contract I'm in. So $400 total and it's a deal. A Oculus Rift Dev 2 kit cost $350 with older screen and your not wireless. I like the idea of a fully mobile solution.

Great price but limiting it to the note 4 will be bad for sales. I don't see thousands of people buying the note 4 just for this. I was a bit underwhelmed at the note 4 and I've lost the upgrade fever I had. Sure its better than my Note 3 but not enough for me to buy it. We will see if anyone else gives me a desire to upgrade since I have no brand loyalty and love using the best tech. If I had the note 4, I'd definitely consider the vr at $200

To be honest I like the idea of this working only with the Note 4. Remember that the Note 4 is Samsung's only qHD device and when you start mixing 720p, 1080p and qHD the experience gets destroyed. I've read and seen a lot about VR technology and with the screen so close to your face you need the largest resolution with the largest PPI. Not even the LG G3 would be ideal because it's LCD tech is worst compared to OLED when used in this application.
So from the jump developers will have a powerful phone and not have to worry about various screen sizes, cpu's and resolutions.

The movement-to-photons latency is a bit more important than a slight resolution bump. Apparently it needs to be <= 16ms to feel lifelike, which the Oculus rift is aiming for, but the samsung gear vr is at 20ms. Oculus rift will also have better head tracking so when actually translate your head (instead of just rotating) the world will move appropriately.

I agree it would be nice to know what it'll be in pounds, but Samsung may not have said, and it's not worth guessing because let's face it, us brits don't get a very good deal most of the time, the amount of times I've ended up paying £79-99 for something that is only $99 -_-

i feel that a common misconception is that people think the gear comes with a display.
the occulus rift dk2 cost 350. that includes an oled display and all the sensors, plus external IR camera, extra lenses. samsung gear vr is a piece of injection molded plastic with a head strap basically. you need to provide your own galaxy device, no external camera for positional tracking. for 200? no thank you

You still need to buy a Note 4. Plus, for Samsung, this limits the amount of customers to... those who own the Note 4. Considering most geeks hate TouchWiz, and that this is a gadget for geeks... I just don't see what they were thinking.

Really?
1st I am not sure what all components do they have in that. Do you know?
The work in this project started from GS4-time. Do you think if it was so easy to make a good VR, everyone would be doing it by now.